Yogeshwar stars in Hammers’ victory over Yodhas
MANESAR, HARYANA: Olympic Games bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt led Haryana Hammers to a 4-3 win over Bengaluru Yodhas on their home turf in the inaugural Pro Wrestling League on Wednesday.
The highlight of the contest on the first day of the Haryana leg was the much-awaited ‘guruchela’ contest between Yogeshwar and Bajrang Punia in 65kg. The guru emerged a 3-2 winner.
In the first bout of the contest, Nitin of Haryana beat Bengaluru’s Sandeep Tomar 9-8 in 57kg before Tatyana Kit of the home team scored a comprehensive 6-0 win over Lalita Sherawat in women’s 53kg category.
Pavlo Oliynik brought Bengaluru back with a 10-0 win over Yuri Maier in a one-sided 97kg bout but Geetika Jakhar ensured Haryana’s lead with a technical point victory over Navjot Kaur after both the wrestlers were tied 3-3 in women’s 69kg bout.
It was then left to Yogeshwar to take the contest out of Bengaluru’s reach with a 3-2 win over Bajrang.
Bengaluru won the last two bouts of the contest with Yulia Ratkevich beating Oksana Herhel (11-0) in 58kg and Narsingh Yadav emerging victorious against Livan Lopez Azcuy (8-5) in 74kg but that was too late in the day.
Speaking about his victory, Yogeshwar said, “I am happy that I won. However, it was not easy for me to fight with Bajrang whom I treat like my son.”